Enhancing Transition and Empowering Students with Disabilities in Higher Education

Abstract

College Achievement Training Seminars is a first-year transition program that consists of a series of 15 non-credit workshops with a mentoring component that pairs the first-year participants with upper-class or graduate mentors who are active members of Delta Alpha Pi International Honor Society, the primary collegiate honorary recognizing high-achieving students with disabilities. This qualitative, comparative study examined the first-semester grade point average and first-to-second year retention rates for students with disabilities who successfully completed College Achievement Training Seminars with those who were eligible for and invited to participate but chose not to attend. Participating students had a higher first-semester grade point average and higher first-to-second year retention rates. The mean aggregate retention rate over an eight-year period was 91% for students who completed College Achievement Training Seminars versus 52% for those who did not participate in the program.